Interactive electronic maps and mapping applications allow users to find information related to various points of interest (POIs) at or near a particular geographic location. A POI may be, for example, a specific business, destination, landmark, or venue that may be of interest to an individual or a group of individuals. For example, a mapping application may be executable at a user's mobile device, such as a smartphone, which may be equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS), thereby allowing the user to find POIs that may be located near the user's current geographic location, as determined using the device's GPS. Additionally, such a mapping application may be integrated with a social networking service and allow the user to “check-in” at a particular location or POI and send messages or notifications related to the particular POI to other users of the social networking service who may be linked to the user, for example, as social connections within the social networking service.
However, conventional mapping applications or social networking services generally broadcast check-in notifications and any messages related to a particular POI to all of the social connections associated with a user within a social network, regardless of the geographic location of any individual user with respect to the POI. Thus, a user of such a conventional mapping application or social network service generally does not have an efficient way to send messages related to a particular location or POI to specific users based on their respective geographic locations. Furthermore, the check-in and messaging functionality provided by such conventional mapping applications are generally limited to specific POIs, e.g., business locations, which have been predefined by the mapping application or social networking service.